Landlords are not cash cows – but we are caught up in the EPC net
10 months ago | 21 comments
EPC C targets push landlords to sell
12:01 AM, 17th October 2025, 6 months ago
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Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C targets are now the leading reason landlords plan to sell, claims firm.
A report by Pegasus Insight reveals 38% of landlords intend to sell at least one property in the next 12 months, with energy efficiency requirements cited more often than any other factor influencing their decision.
The government have proposed, but not yet made law, all private rented properties will need to meet EPC C targets by 2030 and 2028 for new tenancies.
Energy efficiency rules are now a decisive factor in landlords’ business decisions
Findings by Pegasus Insight reveal nearly half of current rental stock (42%) in the private rented sector is below EPC C, as many landlords struggle with costs to upgrade their properties.
As previously reported on Property118, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), landlords would need to spend an average of £6,100 to £6,800 per property to meet EPC C targets.
Many of these costs will be passed onto tenants, with a government minister last year admitting landlords can raise rents to pay for EPC upgrades.
Mark Long, founder and director at Pegasus Insight, said: “Energy efficiency rules are now a decisive factor in landlords’ business decisions. With around half of rental stock still below the target EPC threshold, the cost and complexity of upgrades are prompting many to rethink their portfolios.
“This is a pivotal moment for the sector: the ambition to improve energy standards is welcome, but without clearer guidance and practical support, there’s a real risk that good landlords will simply choose to exit the market rather than invest.”
According to the data, 56% of landlords have property rated ‘D’ and 20% have property rated ‘E’, ‘F’, or ‘G’.
Larger landlords are particularly affected, with 78% of those owning 11 or more properties having on average 9.2 properties that have an EPC rating of ‘D’ or below.
The report also shows that landlords’ confidence about future regulation remains subdued, with many citing uncertainty over the timing, scope and cost implications of EPC and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) reforms.
Tags:
energy efficiency, EPC C targets, EPC costs, landlords selling properties, Private Rented Sector
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Member Since February 2018 - Comments: 627
11:35 AM, 17th October 2025, About 6 months ago
My guess is that this will drive a population shift from the country to the cities, just as the industrial revolution and providing a concentrated pool of minimum wage labour (or just benefits for the AI unwaged) sharing build to let rabbit hutches and preculding the possibility of new family formation, ’15 minute prisons’, sorry, cities and a lifetime of enforced rental of an ever increasing range of an impoverished ‘life’, Soylent Green anyone?
Member Since March 2023 - Comments: 1506
7:12 PM, 17th October 2025, About 6 months ago
I think the EPC requirement will b watered down (maybe to a D) or extended to later years. Basically its end of 2025 now and there just won’t be enough time to meet the standards, not enough people to do the work – and the EPC ratings themselves are not fit for purpose and are currently being ‘looked at’
Also, I have 2 properties that are currently a C and under the current law they do NOT have to be renewed after they expire as the same tenants will be in the property. Will the new law force this to be changed and all C certificates must be renewed when they expire. There must be many landlords in the same situation.
Member Since May 2024 - Comments: 204
4:27 AM, 18th October 2025, About 6 months ago
Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 19:12
I expect the government to move the goal posts to make more landlords sell up.
All of ours except 1 which is a D have new EPC’s the rest are all C’s.
A couple of years ago I thought that the EPC C regulation was going to be the thing that made me sell up, so had them all re done as I didn’t want to sell them.
Now, I no longer care and just can’t wait to sell them all and invest the money outside of the UK.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 1999
2:55 PM, 22nd October 2025, About 6 months ago
Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 17/10/2025 – 19:12
It isn’t just that there isn’t time to do the work, or the skilled people to do the work of upgrading band D properties to Band C and above. Apparently Paul Cheshire has just told Homebuilding & Renovation that there is absolutely no way the government’s 1.5 m homebuilding target can be met:
https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/planning/absolutely-no-way-governments-1-5m-homes-pledge-can-be-met
As landlords we already knew that: Anybody saying anything else is just lying. There isn’t the time or the workforce to upgrade all those band D properties to band C either and anybody saying that there is time to do that or that it’s a good thing for tenants is just lying about that as well.